If the tops are dying back they won't grow any further.

I pull mine when I have 2-3 green leaves left.

Would this apply to garlic chives as well or maybe that is what you're talking about? Mine have had that "skin" around the base for about 2 weeks now which I thought might be a sign that the garlic was starting to grow underneath. I appeared to be correct as I safely uprooted one to check & it had a little ball starting about 1 cm (maybe a bit less) around. The chive parts are about 12-20 inches, depending upon the plant & which leaf/chive it is. How long will it be before I can harvest the garlic? Will it flower first or something or just start to die off like you say? Help/answers would be greatly appreciated. :)

Garlic chives are entirely different from garlic. Garlic chives is harvested the same way as regular chives. It does not produce garlic cloves.

My garlic has been subjected to a lot of precipitation since it was planted last November. First near-record snowfall, then an unusually wet spring, with a brief period of flooding. To top things off, I tried planting garlic no-till. Some of the garlic - including a few otherwise reliable varieties - was smaller than normal. Other varieties, however, were still as large as normal; and a couple even seemed to thrive on these conditions.

What I noticed is that the garlic at the lowest point of the row (where it was flooded) was generally smaller, while varieties on higher, better-drained ground were normal, or even slightly larger.

Garlic is ready to harvest when all but 5 leaves have died back. This die-back is most obvious with hardneck varieties. The number of living leaves represents the layers of skin surrounding the bulb; once a leaf dies, that layer of skin decomposes quickly. If nearly all of the leaves have died back, the bulb could split open, exposing the cloves. Such bulbs will not store well, and should be either eaten fresh, or used for planting.

The proper harvest time for softnecks can be harder to determine; many of mine never really die back. If left in the ground too long, they might appear to be growing again... but many of the larger cloves within the bulb could sprout & begin to split. If dug then (as I found out when I dug one variety late last year) the result is huge bulbs, but more and smaller cloves.

I do not understand the term softneck and hardneck garlic. Does this refer to different varieties, or different levels of maturity of the garlic bulb?

Lorna

This is my 4th yr growing persian star. The 6 inches of rain in 18 hrs on top of all the other wet days I think gave it too much water. What's wierd is that I had the stuff in a raised bed where you would think that they could have taken a little extra water better thean they did.

Hard neck and soft are two differnt classes of garlic.

We just harvested our hardneck garlic. The tips of the leaves had turned brown, and we had pulled a few to see if the cloves were still tight to the stem. Thanks for that information zeedman, it's good to take some of the guesswork out of when to harvest.

After you harvest, do you rub just the dirt off, or do you also take a layer of skin from the bulb? I've been doing this with garlic we sell and wonder if it decreases the longevity of the garlic.

Thanks for the info. So, with my garlic chives, what the heck is the little ball growing under the soil that I found when I checked one, if not garlic? Also, when do I know it's time to harvest?

Paulns, there will still be some dirt on the bulbs when you hang them to dry. Once they are cured (a few weeks), you cut off the roots & all but a little of the stem (about 2 inches). To clean the bulbs, remove the outer layer of skin, with the dirt attached. If cleaning large amounts of garlic, this is most easily done by twisting the stem slightly, enclosing the base of the bulb within your fingers, squeezing gently, and "popping" it out of its skin. With practice, this can be done very quickly.

Provided that there were still 5 or more leaves still alive at the time of harvest, there should still be enough skin left to protect the cloves. The longevity of the garlic then depends chiefly upon the variety. Hardnecks are more winter-hardy & have larger cloves, but tend to be poorer keepers.

I prefer the hardiness, flavor, and large cloves of the hardnecks. To overcome the poor storage issue, I freeze the cloves (peeled, but unwashed) in ziplock freezer bags. The cloves will not stick together, and can be used as needed. They suffer very little freezer burn.

Zeedman is right on with his/her advice. I might differ on my storage regimen. Here in zone 6b MA, I grow hardneck, Porcelain varieties such as Romanian Red, German White,Georgian Crystal, etc. which have a bit longer storage life than Rocamboles, Purple Stripes, and other hardnecks.I have found that they store almost as well as softnecks.After the procedures suggested by Zeedman, I find that by storing my garlic in mesh bags by my cellar bulkhead allows me to keep bulbs through the winter and I still have many nice firm bulbs up until April. The temp in the cellar where they are stored near the bulkhead ranges from about 50 in winter to 60 in the Springtime. Stay away from refridgerator storage as this, at least in my experience, encourages green sproats to grow in the cloves. Hope this helps.

I planted over 80 bulbs all around my garden, flower beds in November and I do not see any evidence of them...what could have gone wrong? that's sure alot of bulbs to just disappear or get eaten.

any ideas? are they blending in? I thought I'd be able to tell them from the other stuff. so they are either not there, or I cant tell them apart (from like daylillies mainly)

TN Veggie: That bulb on the bottom or your garlic chives is a bulb, but that is probably about as big as it gets. You can eat them if you want, but by the time you peel them a little, there isn't much left. Normal use for the chives is to cut the leaves off, which you then chop and add to food as a flavoring or as a garnish. If you cut all the leaves off a plant, let them regrow fully before cutting again. Leave the bulbs alone so they will produce again next year.

Excellent storage advice. I also found hardneck will store until april or a little later in the cellar. Henceforth I will store what I use thru april and freeze the rest. Now that I know I can freeze them I may plant more for next yr.

beeone: Cool..thanks for the info. I actually cut 2 plants off like you say & added to a queso dip I made friday. Btw, a friend gave me a Jamaican Red Habanero to use in it! wow...450,000 shu...good stuff! ;)